Reunion
by damnmysterytome
Summary: Inspired by the new video that was posted, obligatory Caryl reunion fic.
1. Chapter 1

**Inspired by my gifset on my tumblr damnmysterytome /post/90507326700/requested-by-rooker92. I don't think I've ever really done a (canon based) Caryl reunion, so this was fun to do. I hope you all enjoy it!**

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"We're really close." Carol said, looking at the sign to Terminus. She couldn't believe it, they were just a few miles out. They were so close, close to safety and hopefully a bed and supplies. She felt like she could cry.

Carol turned to look at Tyreese and Judith, he'd just taken her from Carol while they were walking towards the sign. She'd been holding her for hours, she was exhausted from doing so. Judith was being incredibly fussy, they couldn't just put her on their back anymore, she needed to be held at all times.

"Still wanna go to Terminus?" Tyreese asked her. Carol looked from him to the sign.

"Do we have another choice? We can't continue to walk around like this with Judith." Carol said, she reached forward and fingered the sign briefly before a voice startled her.

"_Carol!_" Could that really be? Was it really?

Carol slowly turned around and a sob escaped from her lips, bringing her hand up to her mouth. Basically sprinting towards her was Daryl Dixon, a group of people behind him. She recognized some of them, but not others.

Before she could begin to run towards Daryl, she noticed a walker coming up to her side. Carol removed her knife from her hip holster and jabbed the knife into the head of the walker, watching it fall to the ground before she looked up to see Daryl still running towards her.

"Daryl!" She called out to him, dropping the pack that was on her back and taking off towards Daryl, leaving Tyreese where he was standing with Judith.

When she connected with Daryl, she threw her arms around his shoulders. His arms came around her waist and held her against him tightly. Carol buried her head in his shoulder and sobbed, she thought she was never going to see him again.

Carol pulled away from him just enough to be able to look up at him and she brought her hands up to his face, running her fingers over a cut under his eye. She still ouldn't believe she'd found him. "You found me." Carol said softly.

"Always find ya." Daryl mumbled, looking down at her in pure disbelief that she was in front of him right now. How fucking lucky was he? Daryl never thought he was going to see Carol again.

Carol looked up at him with tears streaming down her face and leaned up to press her lips into Daryl Dixon's. His hand on her back tightened against her skin as he returned her kiss.

She could hear a reunion between Rick, Carl and Judith behind her, hear Tyreese and Sasha reuniting. She could hear it all, knew she needed to turn around and face Rick.

But that could wait. All that matter was that she found Daryl and he found her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello! So I'd decided to continue this fic, because I wanted to write something canony based in season five. Anyway, here's chapter two!**

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They'd been walking for days, at least it felt like it had been. Ever since getting out of Terminus, thanks to the walker herd that took out most of the twisted town, Rick Grimes had been walking with his son Carl, friends Daryl Dixon, Michonne, Glenn Rhee, Maggie Greene, Sasha and Bob (along with newcomers they'd met in the train car Abraham Ford, Rosita Espinosa, Eugene Porter and Tara Chambler, who had been with the Governor before. He suspected that no one else knew that, but he hadn't had a moment to sit alone with the girl and talk.). It felt like days since they'd even gotten to sleep. The whole town wasn't gone, they needed to get far away from the town before they sat down and got to rest.

"We should warn people." Rosita said while they were walking, having jogged up to Rick. "Find those signs and take them down, make people know that Terminus isn't safe. Who knows how many people they've done that too? Who knows what they did with them?"

Rick looked down at one of the new women in their group and he considered it. "Where are we going to get makers or shit to write messages to people?" He asked.

"I wrote messages in walker blood. Not exactly like there's a shortage of walkers." Maggie said from the back of the group. Rick turned around and he looked at the group.

"Is that what we want to do? Warn people of Terminus?" As a former police officer, Rick liked this idea. Trying to save lives. As a father in the zombie apocalypse, Rick just wanted to get his son to safety. He still hadn't recovered over what that pig had tried to do to him. Carl had never been more silent since then.

"Waste of fuckin' time, if ya ask me." Daryl Dixon spoke up. "Ain't no way anyone in that town survived all those fuckin' walkers."

Rosita stood up to Daryl. "And what if someone from there did? What if a group of them survived? What if they start doing the same damn thing they did to us to more people? What if they start doing it to more people that you guys were with?" Daryl's head snapped to look at her and he thought about what would happen if Carol had been caught by Terminus. She was out there somewhere, he knew that. He knew that Carol was still alive, there was no way what she was dead.

He looked up at Rick and it seemed that Rick was thinking about the same things, what if someone they knew and loved had gotten caught by Terminus. "Alright, we'll do it."

The group went back to the tracks where most of the signs were and at every one they stopped at, they did their best to write some kind of message to let people know to not go there. If they couldn't find a walker to kill and use their blood, they'd just take down the sign and burn it. None of them had pens in their packs, they couldn't just write a note for people. They did what they could to prevent others from getting to Terminus.

As they trekked through forest along the tracks, they began to notice figures passing by through the trees. Cautiously, they followed the figures. The two figures were silent, aside from what sounded like a fussing baby. Rick tried not to get his hopes up that it was Judith, he knew it was more likely that she was dead.

The second they got a sight of who the figures were, his heart stopped when he realized that it _was _people he knew. It was Tyreese, the woman he had banished Carol Peletier, who had his daughter attached to her hip. He was completely frozen as he watched them stop in front of a Terminus sign, his heart picking up when he realized they were heading there, they must have thought it was safe. He was frozen in place, he couldn't even move enough to run after them to tell her no, don't go there.

Any anger he had towards Carol Peletier had dissipated once he saw that she had his daughter, she had kept his daughter safe. He knew how much Carol loved Judith, he knew that she would do everything possible to keep her safe.

"Carol?" He heard Daryl whisper from behind him, walking passed him to see Carol standing at the Terminus sign as she handed Judith to Tyreese. "Carol.." He said again, shrugging his crossbow off his shoulders and setting it down. Before Rick could even stop him, Daryl took off sprinting.

When Rick was able to move, he started to walk towards Carol and Tyreese as he saw Carol turn around and begin to run towards Daryl after taking down a walker. Once he was able to walk, he picked up his movements and he started to jog over to Tyreese, taking his daughter from him as Carol and Daryl embraced each other. A reunion between Sasha and her big brother happened behind him as he and Carl reunited with Judith.

"Be easy on her." Tyreese said to Rick, glancing at Carol as she began to pull away from Daryl. Rick looked at Tyreese and somehow he knew, he knew that Tyreese knew about what had happened. He had stayed with her despite that. Maybe he was wrong, maybe Tyreese could have handled it. "She's been through hell the last week, we both have." Rick nodded.

At the first chance Glenn had, he got in between Carol and Daryl, pulling Carol into a tight hug. Maggie hugged her next, squeezing her tightly in her arms. Next it was Bob, even though they didn't know each other very well. She would have hugged Carl or Sasha, but they were busy with Judith and Tyreese. After hugs, she was introduced to the new people in the group.

When the euphoria of finding Daryl and her family faded, Carol knew it was time to turn around and face the music, face Rick. But when she turned around, she was embraced by Rick and Carl Grimes. She had honestly expected the opposite. Rick looked down at her, glancing at his daughter on his hip. Judith probably didn't understand that she was just reunited with her father, it wasn't like she spent a lot of time with him in the first place.

Rick pulled away from her, Carl still, embracing Carol. Rick looked down at Carol, thinking about what Tyreese had said, that they'd both gone through hell the last week. He didn't know what Carol and Tyreese had gone through in the last week and maybe he wouldn't know. But what he did know was that his little girl was still alive when he'd thought she was dead. Watching Carl embrace Carol, he nodded to her. He wouldn't apologize for what he had done, nor would he ask Carol to. He would, however, thank her for keeping Judith safe. "Thank you."

Carol looked up at him and brought her hand up to Judith's face, brushing some of her hair from her face. "Always."


	3. Chapter 3

**I literally wrote all of this on my phone while in the car on the way to Wal-Mart... Don't fight the muse when it strikes, right? **

**Happy reading!**

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Carol watched as one of the new people in the group, introduced to her as Rosita, walked up to the Terminus sign she'd been standing at. The woman took it in her hands and tore it down, shredding it to pieces.

"What are you doing!?" Carol exclaimed, her mouth falling open as she dropped the pieces and rubbed them in the dirt. "Terminus is safety, people need to know!"

"Forgive us for not mentioning it right away." Tara said, her eyes never leaving Rosita.

"But Terminus is a goddamn lie." Abraham added.

Carol looked up at Daryl for confirmation, she didn't know if she could trust these new people. "Took our shit, locked us in a goddamn train car. Lucky that herd came in and fucked em all up."

"I didn't get Hershel's watch back. Couldn't find the mother fucker that took it off me." Glenn said. Maggie squeezed his hand. Behind her, she heard Daryl grumble about losing his poncho and she forced herself to not smile.

"I'm sorry about Hershel." Carol said, squinting in the sunlight as she looked at Maggie. She leaned forward and embraced her friend again, taking a deep breath. She pulled away and took a look at her group, frowning as she realized that someone was missing. "Where's Beth?" She asked, fearing the absolute worst for the young girl.

She first looked to Maggie for answers. Daryl spoke up when Maggie didn't. "She and I were together for a while… She's just gone."

Carol looked up at him, frowning. "What do you mean she's just gone?"

"She's just gone, alright!?" Daryl snapped at Carol, looking down at her. He took his crossbow from Michonne and he turned around, beginning to walk away from them.

Carol looked to Maggie, who shrugged. "He won't tell anyone what happened." She said. "All he'll say is that she's gone. Won't tell us if she's dead or if there's a chance she's alive."

With a glance back at the group, Carol jogged to catch up to Daryl. "Daryl, if there is a chance Beth's alive, you need to tell us what happened so we can find her."

Daryl gave out a bitter laugh as he turned around and looked down at Carol. "Ya think you could find 'er? I chased after a goddamn car for days, ain't no way we can find her. She's /gone/."

"Beth is part of our family. We are /not/ leaving her behind." Carol argued. "Now tell me what happened."

Daryl snarled, but knew Carol would not give up. Not on something important like this. If it was anything else, she would. "It was my fault, alright? I was stupid and that stupidity got her grabbed by… Fuck, I don't know who it was."

"Who? So it was a person, there's still a chance she's alive." Carol said as she heard the crunch of footsteps behind her.

"People don't kidnap others with good intentions." He snapped.

"Someone took Beth. That isn't on you." Glenn said from behind her. Carol glanced behind her and noticed that Glenn and Maggie had walked up behind them. The rest of the group trailed behind them, but still stayed behind.

"It was stupid. Everything we did was stupid."

"What's that mean, everything you did?" Maggie asked, pushing passed Carol and walking up to Daryl. This was the most anyone had gotten out of him. "What did you do to my sister?!" She asked in an accusing tone.

"I ain't fuck her, if that what yer tone is trying ta ask."

"What did you do to my sister, Daryl Dixon?" Maggie asked, taking two handfuls of his jacket and getting her face close to his.

The tension could be cut with a knife as Maggie got her face straight into Daryl's. Carol saw his fists clench, glanced at Glenn who was ready to pounce if need be.

Daryl grabbed Maggie's wrists and yanked him off her, shocking the group when he shoved her away from him. "I got 'er drunk, alright? Could have been looking fer any one of you, but instead I went and got 'er drunk?"

Maggie lunged at Daryl, Glenn's arms quickly going around her waist to hold her back. "You got my sister drunk?!" Maggie screamed. "She's just a fucking kid!"

"She wanted it, was gonna get 'erself killed looking for alcohol." Daryl snapped. "Would ya rather I had let her go looking for it 'erself?"

"So!? She's a kid, our father was an alcoholic too! Is that how you thought you'd honor him?!" Maggie yelled, struggling against Glenn. She began to cry, uncontrollable sobbing. She fell to her knees, Glenn's arms coming around her. He held her while Maggie cried and while Daryl's anger subsided.

Maggie looked up at Daryl with accusing eyes. "If my sister is dead because of you, I'll kill you. Do you hear me, Dixon? No amount of bolts or Rick or Carol will save you. I will kill you."

Daryl opened his mouth, but Rick intervened. "It ain't gonna come to that. We'll find Beth, we'll bring her home. We can backtrack, go ta where she was taken and go from there." He said as he came up, standing between where Maggie was still on her knees and where Daryl was standing. With Judith on his hip, neither of them were going to lunge at each other. "We're going to do it together." Rick glanced between all of them, his gaze lingering on Carol for a moment before he turned his gaze to Abraham, Rosita and Eugene. "Are you with us?"

Abraham looked like he was going to scream when Rosita spoke. "We'll help you find her."

"We gotta get Eugene to the capital, we ain't got time to look for some girl that's probably dead already."

Both Maggie and Daryl looked ready to pounce at that comment. "Fine, Abraham. You take Eugene to the capital." Rosita snapped. "I'm staying and helping them. They could have left us at Terminus, left us to die. We owe them."

"We don't owe anyone shit, already reunited Glenn and Maggie." Abraham argued.

"Do what you want, I'm staying with them." Rosita said, walking towards the group.

Eugene glanced at Rosita and Abraham, then walked past Abraham to join Rosita.

"The hell? We gotta get you to the capital, Eugene." Abraham said.

The man with the mullet looked at him. "It can wait. Save this girl, then we'll head to the capital."

Abraham groaned. "Alright, fine. That's what we'll do." He agreed.

Rick nodded and looked to Daryl. "Well, lead the way."

Daryl nodded, slung his crossbow over his shoulder and turned around. He glanced back at Carol and twitched his head to the spot next to him, indicating that he wanted her to walk with him. She nodded and took her pack from Tyreese, strapping it to her back and walking up to Daryl to begin the trek back to where Beth was taken.


End file.
